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TV Slut round-up (and a bit on Caprica cancellation)
The DVD player finally died. Or at least I think it died. I tried playing two different netflix discs and got a Disc Error. Then put in two discs that I own and don't care about (Chicago and Bride and Prejudice) which also came up with disc error. This means new DVD player. Great. Just what I want to do. And getting it out from under the DVR box (which is huge) and plugging in a new one - nightmare. What I would give to have a techy friend and/or relative who lived nearby to help me with this. But my techy friends do not live within shooting distance of me. ME? Not techy. I think watching Big Love killed it. I'd blame Farscape - but I was able to watch quite a bit after Farscape, including all of Dexter. No, it was definitely Big Love. Oh well, it was close to eight years old - these things don't last long. Time was - we could fix them, now, not so much. Have to buy a new one. We live in a throw-away society. Nothing is built to last. Because people are busy making something cooler and less durable to take its place. I do have time to do it - am taking Monday off as a personal day, and I get election day off - to vote. I don't want to vote - for two reasons - a) don't like anyone. and b) every time I vote they call me for jury duty.
Although the governor race this year is certainly entertaining: we have "the rent is 2 damn high" party - with a guy running on it who doesn't have to pay any rent and has no idea how much his rent actually is, Kristen Davis - the madame who provided Eliot Spitzer - the former governor with his prostitutes (she decided that she knew more about running a business than Spitzer or his successor David Patterson did), Carl Palladino (the Tea Party Candidate - who is certifiable and literally pissed off everyone except well other people in the Tea Party, the Tea Party is starting to remind me of the John Birch Society), and Andrew Cumo who is running on two tickets, if he loses on one, he can always win on the other. There are others, but those are the highlights.
Watching Modern Family - which made me laugh - even though what happened was technically speaking cringeworthy in the embarrassment department. Taping Project Runway - which flist already spoiled me on. (Guys if you want to rant about a tv show, be careful of spoiling those of us who haven't seen it yet.) So as a result, am sort of ambivalent. I've been more or less ambivalent all season long because none of the designers strike me as remotely talented or worth
watching and clearly coached to play up the drama. (I liked Gretchen and Sarah for making fun of that aspect - Sarah- "this show is just about torturing designers." Gretchen - "all about the Drama". Sigh. Yes to both. What happened to the interesting art? This stuff looks like something I'd see out a home economics class.) This show lost its credibility three seasons ago. I probably won't watch it after this season. It's become more emotionally manipulative reality tv show and less artistic how-to contest, I prefer the latter, the former bores and grates on my nerves. And yes, people it is totally scripted and edited. (They have writers, they just don't pay them benefits.)
Television highlights this week, or rather tv shows that I actually watched and entertained me were: (it should be noted that I have not watched Supernatural, Caprica, Nikita, Terriers (which will probably join Caprica soon in the too brilliant for tv, thus canceled prematurely category),
Luther, and the Event yet.)
* Glee - Rocky Horror Picture Show. I enjoyed the heck out of this. But then I have a fondness for Rocky Horror Picture Show - it was all the rage in college. Back then we didn't have Buffy, or Sound of Music, or Grease sing-a-longs, it was just the Midnight showing of Rocky Horror! We also didn't have DVD's or lap-top computers or Wii. Life was simpler back then. I can tell that the writer of Glee hails from the 1980s and is waxing nostalgic.
My favorite numbers? Emma's rendition of Touch, Touch, Touch Me...was truly inspired. As was
the John Stamos Eddie number - Old Fashioned Rock and Roll. And I always adore...Let's do the Time Warp Again.
The satire per usual was wicked and not that subtle. But the use of Barry Bostwick (Brad from Rocky Horror) and Meatloaf Me Dalay (Eddie from Rocky Horror) as the two network news heads who convince Sue Silverstrie to go undercover and expose Will's play as another example of how unsuitable such activities are for kids - was inventive. Also wickedly ironic. The only people better would have been Susan Sarandon (Janet) and Tim Curry(Sweet Transexual From Transvelania).
Sorry Mercedes, but you are no Tim Curry.
I adore Glee. I don't really want to analyze it. I find it fairly obvious in both its humor and satire, subtle - Ryan Murphy is not. But it is a lot of fun. Missed Punk though. Sam is just not a good substitute. Punk would have made a perfect Eddie - although Stamos did a good enough job of it. And Stamos is a good addition to the cast. This show does make good use of its celebratory guest stars and picks appropriate ones. Possibly the only that does. Which may explain why it's become hot to celebs and isn't having troubles getting people interested.
* Raising Hope - still enjoying this odd little show, that has a lot of heart wrapped into a witty package. The cast is highly appealing.
*Grey's Anatomy - not as good as last week, but still packed a wallop. They did the old documentary show that all medical dramas feel the need to do sooner or later. MASH started the trend. I personally hate it when they do this. It always reminds me of why I don't like documentaries and reality shows. Watching people being interviewed bores me. I find it so fake.
That said? They did a better job than most and there were some truly touching and funny moments.
What Grey's is doing astonishingly well this year is examining how various people handle a severe traumatic event psychologically and physically. To think, I almost stopped watching this year last year and the previous year - when it was bad, it stunk. When it is good, it soars. And this year may well be its best season to date.
That said, Momster and I had the same reaction to Callie and Arizona abruptly being written out in a manner that came out of the blue. Okay, so we have to write out the gay couple because the network can't handle it anymore? Also why is it always the female gay couple? Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that female gay couples or lesbians don't really exist for long or at all on broadcast or network or cable tv? (Outside of the L Word - which doesn't count, because it was on Premium Cable not commericial cable). And when they do pop up - they are either quickly written out, or killed, or one of them suddenly falls for a guy or is clearly bi, or it is written clearly to titillate guys? While many tv shows, commericial and otherwise have male gay couples or homosexuals. I was thinking about it - I've always been aware of the male gay community, but often not so much of the female. (Which is weird because I have a lot of lesbian friends both online and off. Always have.) Momster states it has a lot to do with aids - which doesn't really affect lesbians at all. So the focus was on men. That may be it. But it just strikes me - that Brothers and Sisters has not one but three male gay characters, but the mention of Nora as gay was made fun of and treated with shock and dismay (she's not), Desperate Housewives - had a male gay couple and a female one (they wrote the female one out immediately but kept the male.). Buffy - well, it killed off one of the partners, and while the character was allowed to be in a relationship with a new female character - it ended that year. Buffy and Grey's are the only ones that examined a female gay relationship in depth and not a male one. Usually it's the opposite. How many comedies have gay men? How many have gay women? I wonder why?
Everything else in Grey's was fantastic. Just that bit, bugged me. But I don't blame the writers - it felt network dictated.
* Vampire Diaries - say what you will about this show, it is definitely the fastest paced tv show on at the moment. It's bizarre. The show is written like Passions, dialogue lifted out of a bad Harlequin novel (which I've read - I don't critique things I haven't read myself), and soapy as all get out at times, but man, does it move. You are never bored ...okay maybe during Elena and Stefan's scenes, but they don't last that long...get up to go to the bathroom, come back, and you are back to the action. Also it is highly entertaining and fun. Like cotton candy or crack. (People were comparing True Blood to crack or cotton candy, uh, no, that's Vampire Diaries. You can't write meta on Vampire Diaries - okay, I take that back - yes you can, you can write meta on anything, but Vampire Diaries is unlikely to be discussed by critics and scholars...while True Blood already is. Don't believe me? I can find links. The Satire of the Christian Right alone is
fodder for a meta. But True Blood is on HBO - it can do that. Vampire Diaries is on the CW - it can't. Plus True Blood is aimed at the 25-45 audience, Vampire is aimed at the 12-25 year old audience, big difference. (I say this knowing full well that I am much older than the tween audience to which the show is aimed at.) That said? True Blood is poorly paced. At least the two seasons I watched were. Slow. I was very bored during some of those orgy scenes. Alan Ball could learn a thing or two from Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec regarding pacing. Just saying.
This week's episode, which aired prior to sweeps - had two deaths, a villain entombed, a main character kidnapped, and another character turned into a creature of the night. Whoa. Plus not one but two new romantic relationships between two new main characters suggested. That's a lot to pack into just 43 minutes of tv. Watching this show is a bit like going on a rollercoaster or a thrill ride, it just plain fun.
*The Good Wife - the best political drama on tv. Actually I think it may well be the best drama on commericial tv at the moment. Top-notch cast. You can't get better than this cast for a network tv series. (Note I'm ignoring premium channel shows like HBO's Boardwalk Empire or Clash of Thrones.) And the layers upon layers, in depth character stories, and how each case reflects bits and pieces of those characters... brilliant. It also does a marvelous job of depicting what it is like to be female in this world and the games we have to play each day. Gender politics big time.
And topical in it's legal cases. It's not a procedural. The legal cases are mainly there for exploration of characters or defining characters - much like House. Except this show is better written than House. There's a lot more going on here. And the acting is so subtle, yet so..on target.
Love this show to pieces. But no brain power to analyze it or fully review it.
* Caprica Cancellation - which did not surprise me, but did annoy me.
I haven't watched Caprica yet, but part of me doesn't want to - now that I know it's being cancelled. Why torture myself? I'm not surprised it's being cancelled. I sort of thought it would most likely not make it last year - when it got abruptly pulled during the May Sweeps period.
It was an expensive series to make. You can tell that just by looking at it. Also, it was being marketed to a very small nitch audience. And the nitch audience doesn't tend to like well shows like Caprica. There's a reason why a category exists entitled "Brilliant But Cancelled" or "Too Brilliant for TV". That list contains a lot of quirky sci-fi shows - all with high production values, quality actors, and intelligent scripts. Here's a brief list: American Gothic, Now and Again, Earth 2, Space Above and Beyond, (that show about a Restaurant at the End of the Universe starring Robert Englund...which was anthology horror and serialized - sort of Rod Serling on steriods), Tru Calling, Firefly, Wonderfalls, (the one about the guy who lived in a card-board box and was a CEO and was really dark...with Adrian Psdar??), Dollhouse, and Farscape. They all got axed just as they were starting to get interesting. Always annoys me. What's the point in watching a tv show, investing in it, when you don't get to see the entire story? And the writers haven't been given time to show all of it? If you are going to cancel the thing - at least give them enough time to wrap it up appropriately. Will state that Dollhouse sort of got that opportunity.
Farscape like Firefly - got a two hour movie to conclude itself.
At any rate, it is annoying. And sort of makes me resent tv shows like Star Gate - which seem to go on forever...with interchangable characters and spin-offs. If Star Gate can have 10 seasons, why can't Farscape, Firefly, Caprica, Dollhouse, and American Gothic have at least five?
It's not fair!! (whines like a two year old and stomps off to bed.)
Although the governor race this year is certainly entertaining: we have "the rent is 2 damn high" party - with a guy running on it who doesn't have to pay any rent and has no idea how much his rent actually is, Kristen Davis - the madame who provided Eliot Spitzer - the former governor with his prostitutes (she decided that she knew more about running a business than Spitzer or his successor David Patterson did), Carl Palladino (the Tea Party Candidate - who is certifiable and literally pissed off everyone except well other people in the Tea Party, the Tea Party is starting to remind me of the John Birch Society), and Andrew Cumo who is running on two tickets, if he loses on one, he can always win on the other. There are others, but those are the highlights.
Watching Modern Family - which made me laugh - even though what happened was technically speaking cringeworthy in the embarrassment department. Taping Project Runway - which flist already spoiled me on. (Guys if you want to rant about a tv show, be careful of spoiling those of us who haven't seen it yet.) So as a result, am sort of ambivalent. I've been more or less ambivalent all season long because none of the designers strike me as remotely talented or worth
watching and clearly coached to play up the drama. (I liked Gretchen and Sarah for making fun of that aspect - Sarah- "this show is just about torturing designers." Gretchen - "all about the Drama". Sigh. Yes to both. What happened to the interesting art? This stuff looks like something I'd see out a home economics class.) This show lost its credibility three seasons ago. I probably won't watch it after this season. It's become more emotionally manipulative reality tv show and less artistic how-to contest, I prefer the latter, the former bores and grates on my nerves. And yes, people it is totally scripted and edited. (They have writers, they just don't pay them benefits.)
Television highlights this week, or rather tv shows that I actually watched and entertained me were: (it should be noted that I have not watched Supernatural, Caprica, Nikita, Terriers (which will probably join Caprica soon in the too brilliant for tv, thus canceled prematurely category),
Luther, and the Event yet.)
* Glee - Rocky Horror Picture Show. I enjoyed the heck out of this. But then I have a fondness for Rocky Horror Picture Show - it was all the rage in college. Back then we didn't have Buffy, or Sound of Music, or Grease sing-a-longs, it was just the Midnight showing of Rocky Horror! We also didn't have DVD's or lap-top computers or Wii. Life was simpler back then. I can tell that the writer of Glee hails from the 1980s and is waxing nostalgic.
My favorite numbers? Emma's rendition of Touch, Touch, Touch Me...was truly inspired. As was
the John Stamos Eddie number - Old Fashioned Rock and Roll. And I always adore...Let's do the Time Warp Again.
The satire per usual was wicked and not that subtle. But the use of Barry Bostwick (Brad from Rocky Horror) and Meatloaf Me Dalay (Eddie from Rocky Horror) as the two network news heads who convince Sue Silverstrie to go undercover and expose Will's play as another example of how unsuitable such activities are for kids - was inventive. Also wickedly ironic. The only people better would have been Susan Sarandon (Janet) and Tim Curry(Sweet Transexual From Transvelania).
Sorry Mercedes, but you are no Tim Curry.
I adore Glee. I don't really want to analyze it. I find it fairly obvious in both its humor and satire, subtle - Ryan Murphy is not. But it is a lot of fun. Missed Punk though. Sam is just not a good substitute. Punk would have made a perfect Eddie - although Stamos did a good enough job of it. And Stamos is a good addition to the cast. This show does make good use of its celebratory guest stars and picks appropriate ones. Possibly the only that does. Which may explain why it's become hot to celebs and isn't having troubles getting people interested.
* Raising Hope - still enjoying this odd little show, that has a lot of heart wrapped into a witty package. The cast is highly appealing.
*Grey's Anatomy - not as good as last week, but still packed a wallop. They did the old documentary show that all medical dramas feel the need to do sooner or later. MASH started the trend. I personally hate it when they do this. It always reminds me of why I don't like documentaries and reality shows. Watching people being interviewed bores me. I find it so fake.
That said? They did a better job than most and there were some truly touching and funny moments.
What Grey's is doing astonishingly well this year is examining how various people handle a severe traumatic event psychologically and physically. To think, I almost stopped watching this year last year and the previous year - when it was bad, it stunk. When it is good, it soars. And this year may well be its best season to date.
That said, Momster and I had the same reaction to Callie and Arizona abruptly being written out in a manner that came out of the blue. Okay, so we have to write out the gay couple because the network can't handle it anymore? Also why is it always the female gay couple? Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that female gay couples or lesbians don't really exist for long or at all on broadcast or network or cable tv? (Outside of the L Word - which doesn't count, because it was on Premium Cable not commericial cable). And when they do pop up - they are either quickly written out, or killed, or one of them suddenly falls for a guy or is clearly bi, or it is written clearly to titillate guys? While many tv shows, commericial and otherwise have male gay couples or homosexuals. I was thinking about it - I've always been aware of the male gay community, but often not so much of the female. (Which is weird because I have a lot of lesbian friends both online and off. Always have.) Momster states it has a lot to do with aids - which doesn't really affect lesbians at all. So the focus was on men. That may be it. But it just strikes me - that Brothers and Sisters has not one but three male gay characters, but the mention of Nora as gay was made fun of and treated with shock and dismay (she's not), Desperate Housewives - had a male gay couple and a female one (they wrote the female one out immediately but kept the male.). Buffy - well, it killed off one of the partners, and while the character was allowed to be in a relationship with a new female character - it ended that year. Buffy and Grey's are the only ones that examined a female gay relationship in depth and not a male one. Usually it's the opposite. How many comedies have gay men? How many have gay women? I wonder why?
Everything else in Grey's was fantastic. Just that bit, bugged me. But I don't blame the writers - it felt network dictated.
* Vampire Diaries - say what you will about this show, it is definitely the fastest paced tv show on at the moment. It's bizarre. The show is written like Passions, dialogue lifted out of a bad Harlequin novel (which I've read - I don't critique things I haven't read myself), and soapy as all get out at times, but man, does it move. You are never bored ...okay maybe during Elena and Stefan's scenes, but they don't last that long...get up to go to the bathroom, come back, and you are back to the action. Also it is highly entertaining and fun. Like cotton candy or crack. (People were comparing True Blood to crack or cotton candy, uh, no, that's Vampire Diaries. You can't write meta on Vampire Diaries - okay, I take that back - yes you can, you can write meta on anything, but Vampire Diaries is unlikely to be discussed by critics and scholars...while True Blood already is. Don't believe me? I can find links. The Satire of the Christian Right alone is
fodder for a meta. But True Blood is on HBO - it can do that. Vampire Diaries is on the CW - it can't. Plus True Blood is aimed at the 25-45 audience, Vampire is aimed at the 12-25 year old audience, big difference. (I say this knowing full well that I am much older than the tween audience to which the show is aimed at.) That said? True Blood is poorly paced. At least the two seasons I watched were. Slow. I was very bored during some of those orgy scenes. Alan Ball could learn a thing or two from Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec regarding pacing. Just saying.
This week's episode, which aired prior to sweeps - had two deaths, a villain entombed, a main character kidnapped, and another character turned into a creature of the night. Whoa. Plus not one but two new romantic relationships between two new main characters suggested. That's a lot to pack into just 43 minutes of tv. Watching this show is a bit like going on a rollercoaster or a thrill ride, it just plain fun.
*The Good Wife - the best political drama on tv. Actually I think it may well be the best drama on commericial tv at the moment. Top-notch cast. You can't get better than this cast for a network tv series. (Note I'm ignoring premium channel shows like HBO's Boardwalk Empire or Clash of Thrones.) And the layers upon layers, in depth character stories, and how each case reflects bits and pieces of those characters... brilliant. It also does a marvelous job of depicting what it is like to be female in this world and the games we have to play each day. Gender politics big time.
And topical in it's legal cases. It's not a procedural. The legal cases are mainly there for exploration of characters or defining characters - much like House. Except this show is better written than House. There's a lot more going on here. And the acting is so subtle, yet so..on target.
Love this show to pieces. But no brain power to analyze it or fully review it.
* Caprica Cancellation - which did not surprise me, but did annoy me.
I haven't watched Caprica yet, but part of me doesn't want to - now that I know it's being cancelled. Why torture myself? I'm not surprised it's being cancelled. I sort of thought it would most likely not make it last year - when it got abruptly pulled during the May Sweeps period.
It was an expensive series to make. You can tell that just by looking at it. Also, it was being marketed to a very small nitch audience. And the nitch audience doesn't tend to like well shows like Caprica. There's a reason why a category exists entitled "Brilliant But Cancelled" or "Too Brilliant for TV". That list contains a lot of quirky sci-fi shows - all with high production values, quality actors, and intelligent scripts. Here's a brief list: American Gothic, Now and Again, Earth 2, Space Above and Beyond, (that show about a Restaurant at the End of the Universe starring Robert Englund...which was anthology horror and serialized - sort of Rod Serling on steriods), Tru Calling, Firefly, Wonderfalls, (the one about the guy who lived in a card-board box and was a CEO and was really dark...with Adrian Psdar??), Dollhouse, and Farscape. They all got axed just as they were starting to get interesting. Always annoys me. What's the point in watching a tv show, investing in it, when you don't get to see the entire story? And the writers haven't been given time to show all of it? If you are going to cancel the thing - at least give them enough time to wrap it up appropriately. Will state that Dollhouse sort of got that opportunity.
Farscape like Firefly - got a two hour movie to conclude itself.
At any rate, it is annoying. And sort of makes me resent tv shows like Star Gate - which seem to go on forever...with interchangable characters and spin-offs. If Star Gate can have 10 seasons, why can't Farscape, Firefly, Caprica, Dollhouse, and American Gothic have at least five?
It's not fair!! (whines like a two year old and stomps off to bed.)